we asked david martin at the pentagon to tell us more about what this will mean. >> reporter: the defense secretary's order will make women eligible to serve as infantrymen on combat patrol and even in elite special operations units like the navy seals. however, women will have to meet strength standards that could keep them out of units where the physical demands are especially grueling. combat operations in iraq and afghanistan have already cost more than 130 women their lives and left more than 800 wounded. some, like dawn halfaker, were on the front lines commanding an m.p. platoon in iraq where she lost her arm fighting alongside the infantry. >> there's not a big difference at all. and a lot of the missions we did we did with infantry units. we would do with field artillery units. we were all fighting the same fight, doing the same thing. >> reporter: the best machine gunner in halfaker's platoon was victoria rivers, who was tapped to go on missions with special forces. >> working side by side with special forces teams was pretty cool. >> reporter: but rivers acknowledges some milit